The festival should see its usual array of storytelling, circus acts, actors and arts at this year’s festival with its incredible set design and production. Boomtown has won many awards including UK Festival Awards “Best Festival Production” in both 2022 and 2023, as well as “Transport Impact Innovators” in 2023. Boomtown was also picked as Major Events Summit’s “Best Non-Sporting Event” in 2023. It was also named by BBC Radio 1 as “Best Dance Festival UK & Europe” in 2023.

Boomtown is known for its quirky and extravagant production and stage design with there being eight distinct city districts with 12 main stages as well as over 50 hidden venues along with thousands of live performers and actors.

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Reggae royalty Damian “Jr. Gong” Marley is set to take the stage at Grand Central this year as well as 90s hip-hop legends The Pharcyde. 2023 Mercury Prize winners Ezra Collective will also be bringing some jazz to this year’s edition of the festival. Swedish punk outfit Viagra boys are also playing Grand Central as well as internet sensation Marc Rebillet.

Kent duo Soft Play are set make an appearance on the Saturday (August 10) fresh of the back of the release of their newest album ‘Heavy Jelly’ which is their highest charting album yet reaching number 3 on the UK Album Charts. London based neo-soul singer Greentea peng is also going to play a set on Grand Central.

Punk-rap duo Bob Vylan are set to play as they are sure to bring the political themes to the festival as they partner up with Bristol producer Grove to perform on Grand Central. As well as this post-punk duo Sleaford Mods will be playing, showing the diversity of the festival and that it is not just all Drum and Bass.

Moving onto the Origin stage we are going to see Flava D, D&B trio Kings of The Rollers with Inja and P Money play the legendary stage on the Friday. 4AM Kru are sure to bring the energy on Saturday along with Simula and Sota expected to play some memorable Drum and Bass sets. On The last day we will see the icons that are Jungle Cakes take the stage with Ed Solo, Deekline, Benny Page, and Serial Killaz performing a back-to-back. Bou and Pendulum are also billed to perform on Origin.

Among the 100s of other performances across the various stages we will also see the likes of Hak Baker, grime legend D Double E, and Ross From Friends under the moniker Bubble Love. The Wrong Side of The Tracks stage will have Sully, Neff-T, Oppidan, Silva Bumpa, Aries and many more. TikTok sensation Fish56Octogan is also expected to make an appearance at Boomtown at Spectrum 360 as well as Samurai Breaks and Bish.

In recent years, the band have undergone a huge transformation, as they changed their name from ‘Slaves’ to ‘SOFT PLAY’ in 2022 as they wanted to abandon the connotations that followed their previous name, and HEAVY JELLY is the first album they will release under this new name. Their new album is suggested to accommodate this change as it includes nu-metal influences. The two piece have taken to social media to express their excitement, saying that they are “proud fathers”. You can read more about their new album on mxdwn here.

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Their new album adds to their excitement for this year, as they have numerous performances lined up at festivals such as Glastonbury, Y Not, Truck festival, Tramlines, Boardmasters, Bludfest, and Victorious festival, alongside their own tour. Additionally, they are supporting Robbie Williams on Saturday 6th July at his sold out headline show at the annual BST Hyde Park. They are joining Seal, Gaz Coombes, Kate Nash, and Shaun Ryder’s Black Grape.

The tour for their new album begins in October 15th in Brighton, and takes them across the UK to Cardiff, Birmingham, Bristol, Leeds, Sheffield, Manchester, Liverpool, Newcastle, Glasgow, Nottingham, Norwich, and London. Tickets are on sale now, with some dates already sold out. You can find any remaining tickets for the highly demanded tour here.

So far this year, they have been building up the release of their new album and released four singles at the beginning of June, ‘Everything and Nothing’, ‘Act Violently’, ‘Mirror Muscles’, and ‘Punk’s Dead’, all of which will be found on their new 11 track album, which you can pre-order in all formats here.

Since the duo’s formation in 2012 on a residential street in Stoke-on-Trent, they have been on an extremely wild journey, with Isaac, the vocalist and drummer, having personal issues in 2019, leading to their tour for their last album ‘Acts Of Fear And Love’, being cancelled. Their situation then worsened as Laurie’s partner passed away from cancer in 2020, resulting in their almost five year hiatus. However, it was the iconic Blur that reunited the pair as an opportunity to support Blur arose, and the duo began talking, and, despite not getting the gig, started making music together again, and HEAVY JELLY is the product of this journey the two have been on both together and individually. The two are now stronger than ever, calling themselves “brothers” when talking to Kerrang!.